


Odd Ways to Wake up in Ancient Greece

by narnianvalkyrieofberk



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Ancient Greece AU, It's just Alderman and the two cops, Kissing, M/M, Minor Character Death, Oracle divination, Sensual Dreams, THEY DESERVE IT, snake bites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24211168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narnianvalkyrieofberk/pseuds/narnianvalkyrieofberk
Summary: Blitzen’s brothers and sisters always told him that his curiosity would get him killed. He was too intrigued by how humans worked. But that doesn't stop him from reviving the only human that doesn't seem to have been trying to kill him when he got petrified.
Relationships: Blitzen/Hearthstone
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	1. Waking up to a New Statue Sitting Next to You

Blitzen was used to waking up to statues looming over him. He was a gorgon after all, and it honestly felt like every few days a new hero was breaking into his home and trying to kill him. It was far from rare for them to try to ambush him in his sleep, but a glance at him was all it took to turn them to stone regardless of if he was awake or not. But this. This was new.  
  
Instead of waking up to a looming statue, weapon poised above him and ready to strike, Blitzen woke up today with an intact knife stabbed into the ground and a reflective shield a few feet away. The shield was unsettling because it meant humans and demigods were getting smart enough to find his weakness. But… Oddly enough, Blitzen wasn’t dead. He should be dead. The hero that came in with the mirrored shield and knife at the ready should easily have been able to kill him in his sleep.  
  
Instead though, this hero had apparently… given up? He, or the statue that was left of him, was sitting next to Blitzen. His face wasn’t contorted in anger or fear like statues around him usually were. Instead, this face looked almost resigned. There were marks on the cheeks where tears had slid down, only being released from the eyes after he was petrified. None of this made any sense. Why had this man been crying? Why was he in Blitzen’s home if not to kill him? If he had come to kill Blitzen, as the knife and shield suggested, why hadn’t he taken the opportunity to? Why had he seemingly willingly gotten petrified?  
  
Blitzen’s brothers and sisters always told him that his curiosity would get him killed. He was too intrigued by how humans worked. Sure, he’d venture into human towns late at night on occasion and explore. Their clothing and armor fascinated Blitzen, and he’d tried to replicate it on a few occasions. But he’d never considered actually reviving a human that had been turned to stone. It was a simple fix, really. Running water with just a little of his blood mixed in, not even enough that he’d miss it. And this human…. This human was so odd. Blitzen wanted to understand why. So, perhaps foolishly, he took the human to the fountain Blitzen used for bathing. He placed the statue under the running water, pricked his finger with a needle he’d been sewing with, and stuck his finger in the fountain and let the blood gush a little so the fountain would wash it down over the human.  
  
The human’s features began to soften, his chest started heaving, and soon he was gasping for air and struggling out of the water stream, confused and shaking. Blitzen quickly wrapped his coils around the human and grabbed him by the hair, holding his head so he wouldn’t look at Blizen. He wanted answers and needed to make sure the human didn’t escape or turn to stone again before giving those answers.  
  
“Who are you and why were you in my cave? And why didn’t you kill me? Why did you let yourself get turned to stone???” The human didn’t answer. Blitzen could feel him trembling a little bit, but over all the human remained stoic and silent. This was irritating. Blitzen just wanted answers. He gave the human’s hair a little yank and demanded answers again, but received nothing. The human basically went limp, and Blitzen feared he may have accidentally killed him until he noticed that the human was still breathing though otherwise limp.  
  
After a few more minutes of no answer, Blitzen became frustrated. “Well, you’re not getting out of her until you answer me.” He grabbed a scrap of cloth he had and quickly blindfolded the human, who seemed to tense up quite a bit. “Relax, I’m just making sure you don’t do something stupid and get yourself petrified again while I put you somewhere where you can’t run off. I want answers.” The human didn’t seem all that relieved, though he didn’t try to fend Blitzen off so that was a relief.  
  
Blitzen sat at the edge of a pit near the back of his cave and lowered the human into it. As soon as he released the human from his coils, the stupid thing ripped the blindfold off and started madly glancing about, possibly looking for an escape. If Blitzen hadn’t pulled back and hidden in time, the dumb creature would have looked right at him and gotten petrified again. “There’s now escape. Now will you answer my questions? Why are you so different from the other humans????” There was still no answer, and as Blitzen barely peeked over the edge of the pit, he realized the human was still looking around and seemed to be ignoring Blitzen, not even facing him at the moment. That was irritating. Blitzen tossed a small stone down the side of the pit, hoping the noise would get the human’s attention or at least get him focused on Blitzen’s direction. But the human didn’t even notice. The noise was quite loud and echoed all throughout the cave so there was no way he didn’t notice. Unless….. Was this human deaf?  
  
It felt like a lightbulb went off in Blitzen’s brain. No wonder the human hadn’t answered his questions; they were literally falling on deaf ears. Oh jeez, Blitzen had probably scared the poor guy out of his wits with these antics. This human wasn’t so obstinate, just confused and scared. Blitzen rummaged through his things and quickly found an old wax tablet and stylus. He quickly etched an apology and explanation into the table. “Sorry for scaring you. I didn’t realize you were deaf. I was trying to ask you questions without you looking at me and getting turned to stone again.” Once the apology was written, Blitzen dropped the wax tablet and stylus down into the pit and hoped the human would notice.  
  
A little while later, the wax tablet and stylus were chucked out of the pit. Blitzen quickly picked up the tablet. His original message had been scraped away and replaced with a single sentence. “Why do you care if I get turned to stone?” Finally, the two of them could talk!  
Blitzen quickly responded and dropped the tablet and stylus back into the pit. “I wanted answers. Most humans try to kill me. Why didn’t you? And why not just leave? Why stick around and get yourself turned to stone?”  
  
It was quite a while before the tablet came back, and Blitzen began wondering if the human had decided to start ignoring him. However, eventually the tablet came back. Blitz was expecting a long paragraph of writing after all the waiting, but instead, there was again only a single sentence, though this time the tablet showed a lot more signs of erasing and rewriting. “You’re a person.”  
  
“Well, of course I’m a fucking person,” Blitzen thought to himself. “But I’m also a gorgon and humans kill gorgons.” Blitz scratched that into the tablet and dropped it back down into the pit.  
  
This time the tablet came back super quickly. “I’m not going to kill you. My dad always told me that gorgons were monsters that go out of their way to hurt people, but the only statues I saw in here were people trying to kill you and honestly being pretty dumb about it. It’s common knowledge looking at a gorgon turns you to stone. But all of these idiots just come charging in here anyways only thinking about the honor and riches they’ll get if they bring your head back on a shield. That’s why my dad sent me here. I’m useless because I’m deaf. But if I brought your head back, our family would get all the fame and riches. Not that we need it… my dad’s already one of the richest men in Athens. Besides, you’re a person. I couldn’t kill you. And going back without your head isn’t an option. So I figured I was better off being turned to stone than being beaten to death or thrown in the coliseum or whatever my dad would do to me.”  
  
Blitzen spent a long time reading and re-reading what the human had written. His heart started aching for the poor guy in his pit. For fucks sake, he’d rather be turned to stone for the rest of his life than tell his dad he couldn’t murder someone in their own home. Blitz had to do something. He wiped away the paragraph and scrawled a quick, “I’ll be right back; don’t go anywhere,” and then started draping robes over himself to cover himself up. Just as he started heading out, the tablet and stylus came flying back out of the pit. “I can’t go anywhere. You trapped me in this pit.” Blitzen let out a little snerk. This human had sass. Nice. He should be fine by himself until Blitzen got back.  
So while his human stayed safe and sound in the pit, Blitzen headed to another cave, this one home to an oracle. He’d never come here before, but he needed answers. Doing his best to not draw any attention to himself in case there were other visitors, Blitzen slunk his way to the oracle.  
  
“What do you seek here, gorgon?”  
  
Blitzen flinched and scanned the area. Thankfully, there weren’t any visitors in earshot. “I’ve come because I have a guest and I need to know how to help him.”  
The oracle raised her eyebrow, but obliged to try and answer the question. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the spirit of Apollo flow through her or something. Honestly, Blitzen wasn’t entirely sure how oracles worked, but he figured it was something like that. Finally, the oracle spoke again. “Let your venom flow through his veins, and then send him home.”  
  
“E… Excuse me???? You’re saying the best thing I can do for a guy whose father will kill him if he doesn’t come back with the head of a gorgon is to infect him with gorgon venom and send him back empty handed to his father. That is what you’re telling me to do right now?” Blitzen questioned incredulously.  
“Look, buddy, I don’t get told why things work. I just get told what will work. And that’s what I’ve told you. If you don’t like it, try going straight to a god. You’ll probably get the same answers I get, but then at least you won’t be my problem.”  
  
“Fine… whatever….” Blitzen muttered and slunk back to his cave. This was crazy. How was he supposed to curse this guy with gorgon venom and then send him home to his shitty father. There had to be a better way! Was Apollo feeding the oracle bad ideas just to fuck with Blitzen since he’s a gorgon???? Shit…. There was no way to know for sure…. But… Rumors had it that Apollo was one of the more chill gods, at least compared to Zues, or Hera, or Aphrodite. Maybe it was worth following the advice?  
  
Blitzen continued to ponder this all the way back to his cave, and was honestly still debating it by the time he got to the pit he’d left the human in. Blitz peeked into the pit and saw the human curled up against one of the walls, sleeping. He looked so frail and precious, Blitz just wanted to protect him. The poor guy barely had any meat on his bones, his eyes were sunken and had dark bags underneath them, and his hair was faded nearly to a grey-ish white. Maybe some gorgon venom would do him some good. It would give him extra strength and stamina long before the transformations started setting in. Plus, the venom would make it so the human would only turn to stone if he stared straight into a gorgon’s eyes before his transformation was complete. That would make it easier to communicate with the guy since he could then read lips, plus Blitzen knew some rudimentary sign language.  
  
So, Blitzen carefully curled the end of his tail around a stalagmite near the edge of the pit and lowered his upper body in. The human looked so tender and handsome as Blitzen scooped him up into his arms. Oh fuck… No. Stop it. Don’t think about the human as attractive. Don’t think about how his soft hair looks great to stroke. Don’t think about how perfectly in Blitzen’s arms he fits. And especially don’t think about how kissable his lips look. Fucking stop it! Blitzen shook his head as though doing so would shake the stupid thoughts right out. The serpents that comprised Blitzen’s hair began writhing towards the human. In a quick flash, two of the snakes bit into the human’s neck, three into one shoulder, one into the other, and four bit the human right on his exposed collarbone.


	2. Waking up to Being Bitten in the Face

Hearthstone awoke with a start. He could feel fangs digging into him. He thought for sure he was about to be the gorgon’s lunch, and flung his eyes open hoping to get petrified again. Maybe the gorgon would think it was too much hassle to unpetrify him again. The gorgon’s snake hair stopped biting Hearthstone, and he could feel the venom burning its way through his veins. But the petrification never came. What the hell was this? As the gorgon began to hoist Hearth out of the pit, he wondered if it was worth it to try and make a mad dash for the exit. No. Hearth always come up with stupid plans. And his stupid plans already got him in the clutches of a gorgon that was probably about to eat him. Best not to plan any more and to just accept his fate. Oh well. He hoped he gave the gorgon indigestion.  
  
But instead of eating him, the gorgon just… took him to the mouth of the cave??? And set him down??? What the hell was this gorgon playing at? Then the gorgon did the sign for “home” and started making a shoo-ing motion. Hearthstone stared at the gorgon in confusion for a minute before finally just giving up and slowly treading the road back towards home.  
  
As Hearthstone plodded towards his death, he noticed two people coming the other way down the road. He shuddered a little as he realized it was Wildflower and Sunspot. Those assholes were probably gonna drag him to his dad as soon as they saw him to make sure he couldn’t try and run away to escape his dad’s punishment. As he approached, the two other men stood puzzled for a moment, then looked pretty stern once Hearth got close enough to be recognized.  
  
You know what? Fuck it. Hearth was going to die no matter what. Why let these assholes have the satisfaction of dragging him to his father without him putting up a fight? As Hearth got within spitting distance of the other two men, he signed to them. _Hey, assholes, guess who faced a gorgon and lived?_ And with that, Hearthstone jabbed his thumbs towards himself and smirked.  
  
“There’s no fucking way you got anywhere near that gorgon and lived to tell the tale,” Wildflower spat.  
  
“You think anyone’s going to believe that a useless punk like you got within fifty feet of a gorgon and didn’t immediately get killed?” Sunspot added in.  
  
Both smirked and Wildflower added, “This was the last chance your father gave you. Now he won’t care if we bring you in half dead because we’ll have saved him half the effort of killing you.”  
  
_I’d like to see you try._ Hearthstone signed, all the while wondering if this was normal for someone who knew they were going to die. He’d never been this willing to piss off people already prepared to kill him. But now, it just felt powerful, like a last stand he could make. He smirked and waited for Wildflower and Sunspot to lunge for him. But they never did.  
  
Hearthstone watched as the smirks slowly faded from their faces and fear filled their eyes. They seemed petrified with fear. No, actually, they seemed just plain petrified. A quick knock on Sunspot’s chest after the two hadn’t moved for almost a minute confirmed it. They were solid stone. Hearthstone saw a nearby pool of water and rushed over to look at his reflection. He looked almost perfectly like himself. Almost. The places the gorgon had bitten had already scarred, the bags under his eyes were gone, and something about his eyes seemed… different? Colder, and… powerful? This was new. Hearth knew he should be scared, but he wasn’t. This felt good.  
  
When he finally got home, Hearthstone flung the doors open and went to find his father. Alderman looked pissed as usual but seemed to almost hesitate a moment before laying into Hearth with his usual barrage of insults.  
  
“-- this time there’s no way to redeem yourself. You’re… You…. …. Where did you get those scars?” Alderman was staring intently at the scars on Hearhtstone’s face, almost as though he couldn’t bring himself to look into his son’s eyes.  
  
_Fought the gorgon. Survived. Scars were the only thing it could do to me._  
  
For once, Alderman didn’t chide his son to write on the tablet instead of signing. “Just go to your room. I’ll decide what to do with you in the morning,” Alderman growled and stalked off towards the wine casks.  
  
Hearthstone went to his room without much question. There really wasn’t much else to do in this house anyways. He just laid in bed and went to sleep. As soon as Hearthstone began dreaming, he felt like he was being wrapped in something warm and scaly, yet somehow beautifully soft. He opened his eyes and saw himself curled up in the gorgon’s coils. The man was stroking his hair and gazing into his eyes.  
  
Unlike during their time together in the cave, this time Hearthstone was able to get a good look at him. He had dark skin and a shiny copper snake tail. The snakes that made up his hair were a dark hue like coal, with golden and silvery speckles forming lines up their sides. Honestly, even with his fangs, serpentine slit eyes, and powerful coils, the gorgon was gorgeous to look at. And he’d been so kind to Hearthstone, at least compared to how a lot of other people treated him. He’d even used sign language! Suddenly, Hearthstone found himself leaning towards the man’s soft-looking lips for a kiss.  
  
Hearth awoke midway to the kiss as his father in real life shook him awake. Hearthstone blinked blearily and tried to focus on his father’s lips and figure out what he was saying.  
  
“--One more chance to prove you’re not worthless. Explain to me how you didn’t get turned to stone. Now.”  
  
Hearthstone glared at Alderman. He’d fucking seen a gorgon face to face and somehow survived, and Hearth could tell his father only cared insofar as he could use it for another one of his schemes. He ignored his father and tried to pull his sheet over his head. Alderman was having none of it and yanked the sheet away. Hearthstone glared at him and signed, _I faced a gorgon and lived after you starved me for years and barely ever let me get any sleep. It’s a miracle I even survived the journey to the gorgon’s cave, let alone surviving the gorgon itself. Now get out of my room and let me rest._  
  
Hearth felt a flurry of emotions. This… this couldn’t be real. He couldn’t seriously be telling his father off like this. His dad was absolutely going to kill him for this. But.. at the same time. His father deserved this. He’d treated Hearthstone like trash for his entire life. Why the hell should Alderman expect his son to show him any sort of respect? Why the hell did Hearth even try to get his approval anymore? It was obvious that was an impossible task.  
  
Hearthstone broke himself away from his thoughts just long enough to look up at Alderman. The old man was petrified solid, just like Wildflower and Sunspot had been. Hearth looked down at himself and saw his skin looked like it was starting to take on a green hue. This was all too weird. Hearth ran outside and ran towards the woods, somewhere, anywhere where he could sit and think for a minute.  
  
The sunlight filtering through the leaves felt nice, and Hearth started feeling drowsy again. He sat down and leaned against a nearby tree. Suddenly, there was a small, sharp pain in Hearthstone’s tongue. He brought his finger up to his mouth to determine what had caused it, only to find two possible sources of the pain. One was that his teeth had now all become sharp fangs. The other was that his tongue now inexplicably split into two forks at the end. There was a river flowing nearby, and Hearth tried to stand up to walk over to the stream and examine his reflection again. Except he couldn’t move his legs independently anymore, and when Hearth looked down to figure out why, he realized he didn’t have legs anymore. Instead, he now had a long snake tail covered in different shades of green varying from emerald to chartreuse.  
  
It took a bit of work, but eventually Hearthstone managed to get his balance enough to more-or-less stand up and began trying to slither over to the stream. When he finally got to the stream, Hearthstone stared in shock as his reflection revealed that he now had a nest of white serpents on his head instead of hair. They were sleeping, but one was slowly blinking in its sleep, revealing soft, pink eyes.  
  
Alright, fine. Yes. At this point, this may as well happen. Honestly, this wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened. Actually, Hearthstone realized that this felt pretty great. He had finally stood up for himself. He was free of the oppressive guilt that hung heavy in his home. He could go anywhere and do anything, well…. Maybe not anywhere or anything. After all, he was a gorgon now. Humans wouldn’t take too kindly to his existence if they even noticed it before they became stone from looking at him.  
  
It finally hit Hearth that being free from his father’s home meant he really had nowhere to go now. He didn’t have any other family, and even if he did they likely wouldn’t take him in. Most humans in general wouldn’t shelter him now. What about the gorgon man? Hearthstone wasn’t sure he really wanted Hearth around either, but it was worth asking. The worst that could happen is the gorgon finally gets around to killing him. And after how many times Hearthstone had thought he was going to die in the last two days, it really didn’t matter anymore if he did die.  
  
It took a while to get there since Hearthstone wasn’t used slithering instead of walking yet, and it was around sunset when he finally arrived at the cave. The gorgon was near the mouth of the cave slithering back and forth like he was pacing. When he saw Hearthstone approach, he actually rushed over and hugged Hearth. “Oh, thank the gods, you’re alive!” Hearth saw him exclaim just before wrapping Hearthstone in his arms.  
  
The gorgon let go quickly after, seemingly a bit embarrassed at showing such affection to a relative stranger. He began babbling with the occasional sign to supplement it. “I’m so glad you’re okay! I’d asked an oracle what I should do and she said to envenomate you and then send you home… and I was worried, but it was the only advice I had. But then I spent all yesterday and today wondering if I’d just sent you to your death… I mean, oracles work because of Apollo, right? And yeah, he’s fairly chill, but gods in general still don’t seem to be the biggest fans of gorgons…”  
  
_My dad’s stone now. Honestly, the asshole deserved it. Thank you._  
  
Blitzen stuttered a little and then nodded. He had a slightly nervous smile on right now. It was honestly so cute. Hearthstone honestly wouldn’t mind getting to stare at the gorgon’s face making cute little smiles for the rest of his life. For now, though, Hearthstone just needed a place to stay for a bit.  
  
_I don’t have anywhere to go right now. Could I stay here for the night?_  
  
Blitzen blinked and then nodded. “You… you can stay here forever if you’d like.” Hearthstone smiled for the first time in a very, very long time. He hadn’t even known the gorgon a full day, and he was already so much kinder to Hearth than everyone else in his life combined had been.  
  
_I think I’d like that quite a lot. I’m H-E-A-R-T-H-S-T-O-N-E, by the way._  
  
The other man smiled and signed his own name. _B-L-I-T-Z-E-N._  
  
The two went inside and ended up spending the night curled up together to help each other stay warm since they were both partially cold-blooded. Hearthstone grinned to himself. This wasn’t what he’d been expecting to happen when he was sent to the gorgon’s cave the day before. No, this was much better than anything he could have reasonably expected. 


End file.
